Venturi system helps to ‘beat the bugs’

Where such microorganisms can accumulate – has proven highly effective in reducing levels of waterborne Pseudomonas and Legionella bacteria, a two-year trial, and ongoing sampling, have shown, backing the findings of a smaller-scale trial of the technology at Liverpool’s Broadgreen Hospital 18 months earlier. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie reports.

The Kemper Hygiene System (or ‘KHS’, in abbreviated form), which was developed by German industrial manufacturer Kemper, and is marketed throughout the UK and Northern Ireland by Kemper Rhodes UK, was installed in early 2008 throughout the ground and first floors of the ‘old’ St Mary’s Hospital building in Manchester. An early 20th-century building close to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, the ‘old’ St Mary’s Hospital had, since its establishment in 1907, provided an expanding range of gynaecology, maternity, IVF, and other women’s health services from its three floors.

As part of a service rationalisation, and the ongoing ‘New Manchester Hospitals development’, the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CMFT) decided to re-locate a number of these services – meaning that in future, only two of the building’s floors would be used, providing significantly fewer services, and predominantly on a 9.00 am to 5.00 pm, rather than the previous 24-hour, seven- day-a-week, basis. It was recognised that, as a consequence of the resulting underusage of part of the building, cold water stagnation could occur, in turn generating a heightened risk of potentially harmful waterborne bacteria such as Legionella and Pseudomonas aeruginosa building up in under-utilised pipework.